95
Meranda was half-asleep when a door shut loudly. She first thought it was her mother. Then came the voices she was dreading.
"Should we wake her up?" Amara said quietly.
Mermista sat on the bed. "We need to talk to you."
Meranda groaned. "Go away."
"Not until you tell us what you said to Mikey. And more details on Kyth." Mermista said shaking Meranda awake. "Talk."
Marika and Amara sat on the bed too. "We're not leaving, but you already know that." Marika said and put a hand on her growing belly.
"Crying yourself to sleep isn't gonna solve anything." Amara said.
Meranda yawned, moved a little and kept her eyes closed. "Kyth was a horny frog in a prince's body. All he really wanted was sex. He flirted with those pretty eyes. His gorgeous smile hid the real jerk-hole he is. So thanks for sending those spies that night."
"We love you!" Amara said and hugged Meranda as best as she could.
"Ugh, get off of me!" Meranda yelled and moved to sit up.
96
Marika asked, "What about Mikey? SeaHawk said he was sick today."
On his ship in bed with a broken heart, Meranda thought.
"I made sure he knows we're only friends." She told her sisters and cousin.
Sadly Amara went, "Ohhh." Her eyes looked away and to the floor. Her facial features sank in even more sadness. "He . . . you know he loves you, right?" She turned back to Meranda with tears in her eyes.
"I don't date pirates." Meranda told her.
Amara shot back, " . . . but you will date scum bags that treat you like dog crap! Why can't you drop that one rule for him, Meranda?"
"I've thought about it, but I'm just not comfortable with getting too close to him." She said, getting upset.
Mermista laughed. "You're already close to him. He knows many of your favorite things! You and Mikey have turned into best friends over the last few months."
Meranda sighed. "Then I need to distance myself from all of them."
"It's because you don't want to end up like my mother? Right? Well guess who helped sink the Red Phoenix!" Mermista told her.
97
Meranda gasped as did the others.
"Sebastian helped too." Mermista said. "I'm begging all of you not to say a word." She turned to look at Amara. "You did not hear a word I just said, right? You're bad at keeping secrets."
Amara made a weird face. "Yeah, sure . . . red what? Red monkeys?" She said with a laugh. "Back to Mikey. He's a good person. He would do anything for you, Meranda. If he was the last boy on earth you wouldn't date him?"
Meranda was tired of this. "I don't know, okay! Just drop it. I don't want to talk about him or Kyth anymore."
Marika and Amara left the room first.
Mermista lingered behind to whisper to Meranda. "I know you're wrestling with your feelings right now. I know you're in love with Mikey too. I see the way you look at him. You know he's the one in your personal romance novel. Please, Meranda seriously think about it. Dating him would make you happy. You know it and I know it. Your sisters know it as well."
Meranda listened as the door shut. "No." She said to herself. And Mikey was all she could think about now. She cried until she fell asleep.
Mermista stayed with her cousins that night. After Amara went to bed Marika and her talked about Jordan and the baby for a while. Marika said she had a list of baby names too.
98
It was the day of my 20th birthday! I was super thrilled to celebrate with my crew and Mermista. My celebration with my parent's, older brother and younger sister would be in two days. I had told them two and a half weeks ago that I wanted to be with Mermista on August 4th.
Mother was shocked about that at first. She wanted me to be happy though and sadly agreed. I did not want to tell her or any of them that Mermista and I wanted to make love on my birthday.
Mermista would be coming to the dock within the hour.
Mikey was unloading a barrell with Paulie they were about to wheel it over to ClawDaddy's. "Everything okay over here?" I asked.
"It's all good." Paulie answered, "Just heavy as usual."
Mikey was quiet and focused on what he was doing.
"Want me to help?" I offered.
"Not on your birthday, SeaHawk." Mikey spoke up. "Tomorrow you can help all you want to."
Paulie joked, "He might be exhausted though. He and Mermista are getting it on later today."
Mikey laughed to himself. "If Meranda would drop her damn rule and give us a freaking chance we would be doing it too."
99
I felt bad for Mikey, knowing how much he cared for Meranda. I decided to help them out besides it was my birthday and my decision.
"Let's go get some drinks and food at the Angler." Paulie said after we were done.
I noticed Jordan wasn't around as I counted my crew.
Figg saw the curious look on my face. "Jordan had to use the bathroom really bad." He said with a laugh.
I nodded and the rest of us headed over to the Angler. I was the last to enter and was ambushed with cries of Happy Birthday! I smiled from ear to ear as the guys patted me on the back.
My gift from heaven was smiling lovingly at me. My gosh she was beautiful. She wore a silver colored dress that hugged her thighs. She had matching flats on and her hair was down. Did I drool on the floor? It was possible. All I could do was focus on her as my friends said happy birthday and touched me on my arms and shoulders.
She came over to me and put her arms around my neck. "Happy Birthday, Sebastian, I love you." We kissed like the world had stopped for us. Everything else silenced and blocked out. The kisses got heated and I pulled her closer to me.
A small hand slapped me on the back. "Quit it!" Amara's voice told us. "Everyone is watching you two."
100
I pulled back smiling and Mermista was too. "I'm so excited for later!" She whispered to me.
Jordan and Marika were lighting the 21 candles on my cake. "Need one to grow on!" He joked.
Everyone gathered around as Mermista held on to my right arm. The large crowd then sang to me. A minute later I stepped forward and made a wish as I blew them out. Tell my wish? No! Then it wouldn't come true! I was handed the cake slicer and cut a good sized piece for myself. Then I went to get some chocolate ice cream to go with it.
The cake was vanilla inside with buttercream frosting and it was delicious. Mermista joined me. We kissed and enjoyed our cake. "This was a great surprise! Yall got me good."
"You're welcome, babe." Mermista kissed my lips. "You taste so yummy too." She laughed. "Are you sure you want to make love today?"
I stopped shoving cake into my mouth and stared at her profile. "Are you having second thoughts? I mean if you want to wait we can."
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm scared. I mean I know it's probably gonna hurt at first. I just need to remind myself that sleeping with you is going to cement how we feel about each other."
"I don't need sex to know I'm gonna love you forever." I told her and kissed her cheek.
Mermista smiled and fed me a piece of her own cake. "I'm gonna love you forever too."
